The reopening signifies a major milestone toward the completion of improvements to the Newark City Subway (NCS) that, when completed by 2006, will connect two of the Corporation’s major rail divisions – the Newark Division and the Northeast Corridor with the Morris & Essex Lines and its MidTOWN Direct and Hoboken service.

“This extension is a win-win project for the City of Newark, its residents and visitors and NJ TRANSIT,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director George D. Warrington.

The project facilitates the continuation of growth and re-development along the waterfront and Broad Street – from the baseball stadium to entertainment complexes and restaurants.

The new alignment will include five new stations that will serve NJPAC, Riverfront Stadium, the Newark Museum and Broad Street area businesses.

The Newark City Subway already provides more than 18,000 passenger trips on an average weekday, which currently includes 12 stops from Newark Penn Station to Grove Street in Bloomfield. NJ TRANSIT projects an additional 7,000 to 10,000 passenger trips per day within several years of the extension’s opening. Currently, the NCS provides 5.1 million annual trips.

Mulberry Street was closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the summer of 2003 when an 850-foot tunnel was built underneath the street as part of the NCS extension project. It was the first rail tunnel to be constructed in the state in more than six decades.

NJ TRANSIT is the nation's largest statewide public transportation system providing more than 752,600 daily trips on 240 bus routes, three light rail lines and 11 commuter rail lines. It is the third largest transit system in the country with 163 rail stations, 52 light rail stations and more than 17,000 bus stops linking major points in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia.